Devils 5, Blackhawks 3: Hughes, Mercer lead the charge

Luke Hughes piled up three primary assists while Dawson Mercer had his best offensive game in ages, leading the charge in a much-needed win.

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The New Jersey Devils were able to snap their losing streak on Wednesday night, grinding out a much-needed two points against the Chicago Blackhawks. Here are a few observations from the game:

Luke Hughes was a force 💪

Given Dougie Hamilton’s injury, and Simon Nemec taking a step back, the Devils don’t have much offensive juice on the backend these days. A lot of the heavy lifting falls on Luke Hughes’ shoulders as a result.

He stepped up in a big way in Chicago, creating a ton of offense and giving the offense the jolt it needed from the back end.

Luke had the puck a lot in the offensive zone and did a great job of attacking downhill.

He used his skating ability to blow right past contesting forwards and earn himself space to work with, either shooting the puck or surveying the ice to facilitate for others.

It was more of the latter on Wednesday night. Hughes finished tied for the team-lead with four primary shot assists at 5v5 alone and he made some excellent passes to create goals, picking up three first assists.

The backdoor pass he made to Nathan Bastian was probably the most notable but there were plenty of others – even ones that didn’t lead to goals.

In one instance, Hughes sprinted across the blueline with a Blackhawk pressuring and slipped a beautiful pass through a tight window in the middle of the ice to hit Jesper Bratt in a good spot.

Nothing ended up coming from the play but it was one very few can make – certainly nobody else on the Devils’ blueline.

When Hughes distributes the puck as he did against Chicago, New Jersey’s offense is much harder to slow down. Job well done.

Dawgson Mercer was unleashed 🐕